The year’s second Grand Slam tournament is just around the corner, and all eyes will be on world number one Serena Williams as she attempts to equal Steffi Graf’s record of 22 Grand Slam titles, and continue closing in on Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24.
Williams will start as the favourite to win the French Open for the fourth time; doing so would see her complete an unprecedented quadruple Career Grand Slam, having won each of the other three Grand Slam tournaments six times.
As always, the likes of Agnieszka Radwanska, reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber, world number four Garbine Muguruza, former world number one Victoria Azarenka and 2014 runner-up Simona Halep will headline the contenders keen to stop Williams from saluting for the fourth time.
Let’s now take a look at some of the contenders for the 2016 French Open women’s crown.
Serena Williams
Current world ranking: 1
Titles won this season to date: Rome
French Open history
Best result: Won three times (2002, 2013 and 2015)
Last year’s result: Won
Australian Open result: Runner-up
Once again, world number one Serena Williams will start the hottest of favourites to win the French Open.
This comes despite an indifferent start to the season in which she only took until last week’s tournament in Rome to win her first title for the year.
Before that, her bid to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to achieve the Calendar Golden Slam was thwarted when she lost to Angelique Kerber in the final of the Australian Open in January.
She also lost the Indian Wells final to Victoria Azarenka in March, and had her bid for a fourth straight Miami title ended by Svetlana Kuznetsova. That meant she would enter the clay court swing without a title for the first time since 2012.
Earlier this month she was forced to withdraw from Madrid due to illness, but was able to participate in Rome where she defeated Madison Keys to win her 70th career title overall and boost her French Open chances.
History will be against Williams as she goes for title number four at Roland Garros – not since Justine Henin won three consecutive titles in 2007 has any woman successfully retained the title.
Additionally, the American’s most recent attempt to retain the title ended in rather swift fashion, when she was upset in the second round by young Spaniard Garbine Muguruza, now ranked fourth in the world.
But with most of her rivals out of form, there will be no excuses for Serena this year.
Prediction: Champion
Angelique Kerber
Current world ranking: 3
Titles won this season to date: Australian Open, Stuttgart
French Open history
Best result: Quarter-finals (2012)
Last year’s result: Third round
Australian Open result: Won
For the first time, Angelique Kerber will enter a Grand Slam tournament as a Grand Slam champion, having upset Serena Williams to win her first such title at the Australian Open in January.
With that, however, will come pressure. If anything, the German’s resilience will be tested given she immediately struggled to handle the pressure of not only being a Grand Slam champion but also being the world number two.
Since that breakthrough, she suffered early losses at Doha, Indian Wells, Madrid and Rome, but was able to successfully retain her title at Stuttgart and reach the semi-finals in Charleston where she was forced to retire due to illness.
The losses she suffered in Madrid and Rome came against Barbora Strycova and Eugenie Bouchard respectively, thus raising questions about how she will fare at Roland Garros, where she once reached the quarter-finals in 2012.
But if her breakthrough at Melbourne Park is anything to go by, then she could be in for another deep run on the Parisian red clay. But then again, she could crash and burn like few before her have.
Most notably, four years ago, then-world number one and reigning Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka very nearly lost her first round match at Roland Garros but managed to progress to the fourth round where she lost to Dominika Cibulkova.
It will now remain to be seen how Angelique Kerber fares in her first Grand Slam tournament since reigning Down Under four months ago.
Prediction: Quarter-finals
Garbine Muguruza
Current world ranking: 4
Titles won this season to date: None
French Open history
Best result: Quarter-finals (2014 and 2015)
Last year’s result: Quarter-finals
Australian Open result: Third round
It hasn’t been the start to the season world number four and Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza would have hoped for.
The Spaniard fell early at the Australian Open, losing to Barbora Strycova in the third round, and only last week was able to reach her first semi-final for the season, losing to Madison Keys in straight sets.
However, the result in the Italian capital was just enough for her to secure the fourth seeding at the French Open, where she made her biggest Grand Slam breakthrough when she upset then-defending champion Serena Williams in the second round in 2014 en route to reaching the quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old was able to repeat her run to the final eight last year, where she lost to the eventual finalist, Lucie Safarova.
Having struggled to make any impact so far in 2016, Muguruza will now risk around 1,500 points over the next two months; apart from reaching the final eight twelve months ago, she will also have to defend a runner-up result at Wimbledon in June.
Early exits at either tournament would see her drop sharply in the rankings, so the pressure will be on. However, on the Parisian red clay, she should go just fine.
Prediction: Quarter-finals
Victoria Azarenka
Titles won this season to date: Brisbane, Indian Wells, Miami
French Open history
Best result: Semi-finals (2013)
Last year’s result: Third round
Australian Open result: Quarter-finals
One player who has regained form this year after two injury-plagued seasons is former world number one Victoria Azarenka.
The Belarussian, who fifteen months ago narrowly avoided dropping out of the top 50 for the first time since 2007, broke her two-and-a-half year title drought by defeating Angelique Kerber to win the Brisbane International to start the year.
After losing to eventual champion Kerber in Melbourne 18 days later, she became the first player since Kim Clijsters in 2005 to achieve the Indian Wells-Miami double, defeating Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova respectively.
Those results saw her return to the world’s top five for the first time in nearly two years, and while she had the chance to break back into the top four, she blew it following a mid-tournament withdrawal from Madrid due to a back injury and an early loss to Irina-Camelia Begu in Rome last week.
The Belarussian will again have the chance to earn some fresh rankings points as her seeding of fifth means she won’t face any of the top-four until at least the quarter-finals, where defending champion Serena Williams could loom.
If she can get past the obstacle that is the 21-times Grand Slam champion, then the 26-year-old can fancy her chances of winning a first French Open title and third Grand Slam title overall, having won the Australian Open twice in 2012 and 2013.
Prediction: Semi-finals
Other contenders
World number two Agnieszka Radwanska is another contender who hasn’t been mentioned above, but her French Open record is historically poor, having only reached the quarter-finals once (in 2013) and losing in the first round last year.
2014 finalist Simona Halep has struggled for form this year, losing in the first round of the Australian Open, being dethroned as reigning champion in Dubai by Ana Ivanovic and most recently dropping her opener in Rome against Daria Gavrilova.
However, the Romanian was able to win her second Premier Mandatory title this month, defeating Dominika Cibulkova to win in Madrid; she was also able to reach the quarter-finals at Indian Wells where she lost to Serena Williams.
Australia will pin their hopes on 2010 finalist Samantha Stosur and rising star Gavrilova, who was on the verge of being seeded before a third round loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova in Rome saw her ranking drop to 45th.
Croat-turned-Australian Ajla Tomljanovic, who defeated Radwanska in the third round in 2014 before she switched allegiances, looks set to miss the tournament due to a shoulder injury for which she underwent surgery in March.
Kuznetsova, Ivanovic and Francesca Schiavone are the other three active former champions, along with Williams, in this year’s draw.
World number eight Belinda Bencic (foot injury), US Open champion Flavia Pennetta (retired) and two-times champion Maria Sharapova (provisional drug suspension) are also among some of the big names missing this year.
Can Serena Williams triumph for a fourth time and complete the Quadruple Career Grand Slam? Can Angelique Kerber withstand the pressure of being a Grand Slam champion? Can Victoria Azarenka win a third Grand Slam title? Or can Simona Halep or Garbine Muguruza break through for a maiden Grand Slam title?
All those questions, and more, is set to be answered when play gets underway at Roland Garros on Sunday night at 7:00pm AEST.
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